Daughter of the Outcast
by autumnrose2010
Summary: It is about 2385. Kyla Soren Riker is half human, half J'naii, the first of her kind ever to be born. The J'naii are an androgynous race who cast Kyla's mother out for choosing to live as a woman...and for loving Kyla's father.
1. A Visit to J'naii

_Author's note: This is my first serious attempt at a STNG fanfic so reviewers, please be gentle. :) This story is a follow up to an alternative ending to episode #117 'The Outcast' which I hope to eventually write depending on how well this story is received, as I am basically just testing the waters for now.

* * *

_Kyla Soren Riker was half human and half J'naii, the first being of her kind to ever be born in the universe. The inhabitants of her mother's home planet of J'naii were an androgynous people, neither male nor female. Kyla's mother, Soren, had been banished from J'naii for choosing to live as a female, which she knew in her heart that she was, and for falling in love with Kyla's father.

Kyla had been to Valdez, Alaska in the United States, where her father had once lived, many times, but she had never been to J'naii. On her visits to earth she had at first been seen as a novelty, 'the girl whose mother came from another planet', but her human friends had quickly become accustomed to her forehead ridges which, although not nearly as prominent as those of her mother, were still visible. Kyla fondly remembered the Hannah Montana concert she had attended with her friends on her last visit to earth. The real Hannah Montana had, of course, lived nearly four hundred years before, but her concerts could still be enjoyed via hologram.

Kyla was very curious about her mother's home planet and wanted to go there to see what life on J'naii was like, but after the cold way in which she had been cast aside from her former home, Soren was very hesitant to grant Kyla her wish.

"Once they see your forehead ridges, they will know exactly who you are," Soren told her daughter.

"Ta-da! That's what headbands are for." With a grin Kyla quickly slipped hers on. When wearing the headband, Kyla was completely indistinguishable from a typical human girl.

Soren sighed. "Very well. But you must take Alex with you." Alexander Nicholas Yar was Kyla's oldest and closest friend and, like Kyla, he was half human. His father was an android. Kyla didn't remember when she had first met Alex because she had just always known him. On trips to earth in early childhood the two had made snowmen together, had snowball fights, and rode downhill on the same sled with their legs hanging over the edge. Alex was only a few months older than Kyla, and since both of them were quite unique, they had each been the subjects of an enormous number of medical experiments by Dr. Beverly Crusher. With Kyla there had been concern about her sexual development, which had come several years later than average for a full-blooded human girl, but had been normal in that Kyla had developed breasts and began menstruating without requiring hormonal treatment.

In Alex's case Beverly had been far more concerned about his emotional development. Since Alex's father was incapable of experiencing human emotions, there was some question about Alex's emotional capabilities. After much psychological testing, it had been proven that Alex did indeed experience emotions, although not to the depth of a typical human. The downside of this was that it was very difficult for Alex to really feel happy or excited over anything, and the advantage was that Alex was incredibly cool and controlled in stressful situations, which made him the ideal candidate for dealing with unexpected emergencies.

As badly as Kyla wanted to tell her mother that she was far too old to need a babysitter, Kyla realized how difficult it had been for her mother to agree for her to go to J'naii, and so Kyla knew better than to press her luck.

That was how Kyla and Alex came to be in the presence of Noor, J'naii's leader. Kyla's story was that it was a required educational project for her Academy studies that she learn all about a culture completely foreign to her own, and that Alex was a classmate working on the same project.

"We have evolved beyond the need for gender distinction," Noor was telling them. "In the past we were separated into male and female. But now we have moved beyond that. It was our experience that gender assignment led to prejudice and stereotypes. There was always the tendency for one gender to consider itself superior and try to repress the other. Look at the struggle for equality faced for so many centuries by earth's females, for example. At one time women were treated little better than slaves. They couldn't own property or vote, and they were completely subject to their husband's or father's wills. In many societies it was legal for a man to beat or even to rape his wife. Then there were the cultures that permitted so-called 'honor killings' in which a father or brother had the legal right to murder his daughter or sister if he felt that she had disgraced the family name."

"But on earth that is all a thing of the past," Kyla said. "Men and women on earth are considered to be completely equal now."

"Yes, but how could one be certain that things could never go back to being the way they used to be?"

"The Federation would never allow that to happen."

"We have no use for the Federation. We have our own laws and statutes and don't need theirs.'

What Noor was saying didn't really make much sense to Kyla. She knew that the Federation promoted tolerance and acceptance of all beings without prejudice, so to her it seemed that a leader who was so concerned about gender inequality would embrace the laws of the Federation rather than rejecting them.

After a while Noor said that he/she needed a break, and would meet with Kyla and Alex again later. Kyla and Alex decided that they could use a break as well, so they went for a walk in the nearby woods.

"I wonder if this is the same woods where my parents had their first kiss," Kyla said.

"Are you trying to put ideas in my head?" Alex asked with a grin.

"Of course not, silly." Kyla gave him a playful shove and he ducked out of her way.

"So what do you think of that nonsense about a genderless society? Sounds terribly boring to me," Alex remarked.

"They have the right to live as they want, as long as no one else is harmed," Kyla said.

"But look at what they did to your mother," Alex pointed out.

"That's true." Kyla sighed. "My mother did what she did because she was being true to herself and the person she really is. They shouldn't have punished her for that."

Kyla was so caught up in ruminating about it that she didn't even notice Alex sneaking up behind her until she felt him yank her headband off and saw him run away with it.

"Alex Yar, you give that back to me right this instant!" Kyla chased after him but she was laughing too hard to make any real progress. Finally he stood on a stump just out of Kyla's reach and held it out to her.

"How badly do you want it?" he taunted her.

"Alex, please." Suddenly she was near tears.

"Oh, Kyla," Alex said softly. "You look so beautiful without that headband on." He walked over to her and planted a kiss on her lips before she could say anything.

Kyla was so startled that she forgot about the headband. "Why did you do that?" she asked.

"That was merely a demonstration of my own gender neutrality, or lack thereof, as the case may be." He laughed. Kyla knew that he was showing off, trying to sound like his father. "So how did you like it?"

Kyla didn't know what to think. For the first time in her life she felt just a little bit uncomfortable around Alex.

Alex replaced her headband. "There, now you look like just another human girl again." He turned the corners of his mouth down into a mock frown. Kyla giggled shyly.

Neither of them had any idea that they were being watched.

* * *

Later that day they stood once again before Noor. This time Noor was accompanied by a fellow J'naii.

"This is Krite," he/she said by way of introduction. "And this is Kyra-"

"Kyla."

"Right, Kyla and Alex. They are students from earth here to learn about our civilization."

Krite looked at Kyla. "I have seen her before. She is no student and no human." Suddenly Krite snatched Kyla's headband off. "She is the child of the rebellious Soren and it's human mate."

"My mother is a 'she', not an 'it'!" Kyla protested.

"And her father is the first officer of the Starship Enterprise second in command only to Captain Jean Luc Picard," Alex added.

"I can speak for myself, Alex." Kyla glared at him. She hated it when Alex treated her condescendingly.

Noor stared at Kyla's forehead ridges for a long time. Finally he/she asked, "What is your real purpose in coming here?"

"I wanted to see what life was like on the planet on which my mother was born."

"You realize that I cannot permit you to stay here any longer. To do so would be tantamount to telling my planet's citizens that I condone the choosing of a specific gender and subsequent mating with a member of a different race. Neither of which I do or ever will condone in any form."

"Or perhaps it would be tantamount to telling them that you accept a person for who he or she is and respect their differences without passing judgement on them," Kyla suggested.

Noor looked angry. "You must leave immediately," was all that he/she said.

Kyla felt so disappointed. She had hoped to be able to stay at least a few more days to see more of the planet and meet more of it's citizenry.

Alex was filled with remorse. "I'm sorry, Kyla," he said. "It's all my fault. If I hadn't played that childish prank in the woods no one would have ever known."

"It does no good to blame yourself now," Kyla told him.

Alex himself was relieved to be leaving the planet. It was his opinion that the J'naii were weird.

"Oh, don't feel so down, Kyla. These beings are strange anyway, wanting to be neither male nor female."

"Sooo, Mr. Smartypants, what if I said that I thought that androids were strange for being so unemotional?"

Alex was frustrated. "All I'm trying to say, Kyla, is that you don't owe them any kind of loyalty or anything just because your mother used to be one of them."

Kyla felt hot tears forming behind her eyelids. She knew that Alex would never understand. Alex's father had never been rejected by the inhabitants of his own home planet.

On boarding the Enterprise the first person Kyla saw was Deanna Troi Riker, the wife of her Uncle Tom. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry," Deanna said, embracing her niece.

"It's all right, Aunt Deanna," Kyla said.

"But it isn't really, is it?"

"No, it's not." Tears were flowing down Kyla's cheeks and she felt powerless to stop them. "They are the only beings I have ever seen with forehead ridges exactly like my mother's.'

Deanna held Kyla close and patted her back and stroked her hair as the girl's body was wracked with sobs.

Alex watched silently until the sobs diminished to sniffles. Then he said,"Hey Kyla, maybe your father could arrange for us to visit earth again soon. It would be great to see the Northern Lights again, wouldn't it?"

"I guess so." As the daughter of Picard's second in command, Kyla had seen many sights much more spectacular than that of the Northern Lights from earth, but she knew that Alex meant to be kind, and she appreciated that.


	2. Cousins

"Tell me again the name of the planet your mother is from," Carl Riker said to Kyla. He was waiting for a break in traffic so that he could pull his van out onto the highway.

"J'naii."

"Never heard of it."

"They don't belong to the Federation."

"Huh? Why not?"

"They think they're better than everyone else," Kyla said sadly.

Jon was looking at Kyla's feet. "So tell me, how many toes do you have?"

"Ten, just like you." Kyla giggled.

"What color are they?" Sam joined in the fun.

"The same color as the rest of me." Kyla was laughing so hard that she got a pain in her side.

Carl Riker was Kyla's father's first cousin, and Jon and Sam were his sons. Kyla had come to stay with them for a year so that she could attend Valdez Senior High, her father's alma mater. Her father had thought that a year in a regular high school on earth would be a good experience for Kyla, that it would help her socialization skills and give her more of a well-rounded education than the independent study aboard the Enterprise to which she had been accustomed so far.

Kyla's mother had been hesitant to agree to the experience because she was afraid that Kyla's obvious J'naii facial features would be the object of ridicule.

In the end Kyla's father had won. "She has to learn to defend herself and hold her own," he had said. So here she was in a van in Valdez, Alaska with her cousins.

"What would you like to see first?" Carl asked Kyla.

"How about where they used to load the fossil fuels onto the train for export," Jon suggested. The 400-year-old remains of the Valdez oil terminal could still be seen, an artifact of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries when the earth's economy had still been heavily dependent on fossil fuels for energy.

"In 2010 there was a major disaster in the Gulf of Mexico where there was a big oil spill. It took many men a long time to clean it up. I had to learn about it in history," Jon told Kyla.

"That was British Petrol, not Exxon," Carl reminded him.

"The one in 1989 wasn't British Petrol," Jon said under his breath. Carl didn't reply.

"I'm so thankful that there are so much safer alternatives to fossil fuel now," Kyla said.

"It was once the backbone of our economy," Carl said. "About all that's left to us now are the fishing and skiing industries." Carl himself was a commercial deep-sea fisherman. As he told Kyla, "I'm no super brain like your father. I've never had any desire to seek out strange new worlds or explore new civilizations. I've always been more of a local boy myself." He laughed. Kyla had never thought of her father as being any more of a super brain than Captain Picard or Data or Worf or any of the others.

"Speaking of which," Carl said, "I'm almost on empty right now." He searched the horizon for a service station. They had been called 'gas stations' back in the days when their major product had been gasoline derived from fossil fuels.

Spotting one, he pulled the van into the parking lot. Kyla and the boys accompanied him into the store.

The cashier glanced at Kyla's forehead. "We're getting more and more of your kind around here these days," she commented. Kyla didn't like the way she said 'your kind' at all.

"Her dad is an astronaut and her mom is an alien," Sam volunteered. Jon poked a sharp elbow into his ribs. "You idiot," he growled.

"My father is a commander on the starship Enterprise and my mother is from J'naii," Kyla said proudly. The woman merely grunted in response.

Soon they were back on the road again. "Is everyone around here that friendly?" Kyla asked.

"She sure was rude, wasn't she," Jon agreed.

"My Aunt Deanna would probably say that she must be a very unhappy person," Kyla said.

"She's something else too, isn't she, or part something else," Carl remarked.

"She's half Betazoid," Kyla told him.

"The Betazoids. Those are those mind readers, aren't they?" Carl asked.

Sam made spooky noises, pretending to be a ghost. "Cut it out, you jerk," Jon said, poking him in the ribs with his elbow again.

"Since Aunt Deanna is only half Betazoid, she doesn't have complete telepathy powers," Kyla said. "But she always knows how I'm feeling without my having to tell her. That's what I love most about her."

"Mmm hmm."

"Uncle Tom says that it's one of the main reasons he fell in love with her," Kyla added.

"Kyla, you have no Uncle Tom. Your father is an only child," Carl said gently.

"He's not anymore."

"Your so-called Uncle Tom is an apparition created by a transformer malfunction. He isn't a real person at all."

"He's just as real as you and me!" Kyla felt like a young child defending the existence of an imaginary friend.

"Then why have I never met him?"

"He's an officer aboard the Ghandi and travels a lot. You will meet him someday," Kyla said.

"I don't think I'll be holding my breath," Carl muttered. He was pulling the van into the driveway. "Okay, kiddos, here we are."

Carl's wife Paula was waiting for them at the door. "Why, hello, dear," she said to Kyla, giving her a hug. "I hope you had a nice journey."

"It was fine, thanks," Kyla told her.

"Come on, Kyla, I'll show you where to put your stuff," Jon offered, leading Kyla to the guest bedroom.

"Dinner time soon, guys," Paula said.

After dinner Kyla helped Paula load the dishwasher. Then she went to the spare bedroom, kicked off her shoes, sat cross-legged on the bed, flipped open her laptop, and logged into her account to see whether there was an email from Alex. There was.

"Hi, Kyla. I hope you are having fun on Earth. It's really boring around here with just the rugrats and the adults. My parents want me to study biology with Dr. Crusher this year and for Worf to teach me archery. Remember practicing conversational Klingon together last year? I don't think either one of us learned it that well but it sure was a lot of to you later. Alex."

'The rugrats' was what Alex called Kyla's younger sister and brother, Kendra and William. Kyla composed an email back to Alex.

"Hi, Alex. So far, so good. Carl is so different from Dad that you would never believe that they are first cousins. Do you know he's never lived anywhere but Valdez, Alaska his entire life? Jon seems very nice, kind of cute too. :) Sam's sort of goofy. He reminds me of you, well at least the way you used to be. School starts here in about a week. Got to go cause I'm tired. Later, Kyla."

Kyla closed the laptop, yawned, and lay back on the bed. She heard a knock on the door. It was Jon.

"Kyla? I just wanted to say I'm sorry about the way my dad talks. He doesn't mean anything by it. He's just kind of old-fashioned in some ways."

"That's all right. No need to apologize."

"And just ignore Sam. He's a total dweeb."

Kyla just smiled. She thought that since very few people acted like a 'total dweeb' all the time, it wasn't really fair to call anyone that.

"And by the way, if you really do have an Uncle Tom, I would love to meet him someday."

"I do, and you will. He'd love to meet you too. He's always glad to meet another cousin."

"Well, good night, cuz. See you tomorrow."

"Good night, Jon."

Kyla lay back on the bed again. She knew that she should shower and put on her pajamas, but right now she just felt too tired.


	3. Valdez Senior High Part One

_The adventures of a half-human girl in a typical 24th century American high school. :)

* * *

_

"Will you please hurry up in there? Why do you girls always take so long anyway? Do you have to brush each strand of hair individually, or what?"

"Almost done. Kyla swung the bathroom door open. "There you go. All yours."

"_Finally,_" Sam grumbled.

"If both of you aren't ready in five minutes, you'll have to take the bus," Jon warned them.

It was the first day of the new school year and Jon, who was old enough to drive, had offered to give Sam and Kyla a ride to school.

Soon the three of them were in the car headed for Valdez Senior High.

"So this will be your first year in a public high school," Jon remarked. "How do you feel?" What a shame it was that Kyla was his cousin, he thought. He would have loved to have asked her out on a date. He thought that she was so exotic-looking, with those unique markings on her forehead.

Kyla thought about it for a minute. "I think I'm mostly okay. A little nervous, maybe. It will just be such a totally different experience for me, to be around so many other people my age. I'm so used to being mainly around adults."

"What did you do before? Study on your own?"

"Before I mostly studied with Alex."

"Who's Alex?"

"My best friend. His parents, Data and Tasha, are officers on the Enterprise, too. Data is an android, so Alex is half human too, like me."

Sam, sitting in the back seat, started making robot noises. Kyla, accustomed to his antics by now, ignored him.

"Oka-ay." Jon chuckled.

"Data is highly intelligent and has a very likeable personality too."

"I can just imagine what my dad would have to say about that." Jon chuckled again. "You have a younger brother and sister too, right?"

"Yes, Kendra and William."

"So your father has a namesake." Jon smiled.

"Just his first name. His middle name is John-Luke, the English form of Captain Picard's first name. Since we're not French." She chuckled.

"Obviously." Jon chuckled too.

"Also, my dad has never liked his middle name, Thomas. That's why Uncle Tom uses that name, so they can tell each other apart."

"Things are starting to sound weird again," Sam said, humming the theme to 'The Twilight Zone.'

"You seem to really have a way with words, Sam," Kyla told him. "Have you ever considered a career in public speaking?"

Sam was surprised. "Uh, no, but thanks."

"Here we are." Jon had arrived at Valdez Senior High and was searching for a parking space.

He found one, parked, and they walked into the school. Kyla found her homeroom and a seat and looked around at the half-filled classroom and the empty seats still waiting to be filled. She had never seen so many teenagers in the same place at one time before, and she could feel the panic rising. She closed her eyes, took some slow, deep breaths, and tried to imagine what Aunt Deanna would say to her if she were there. Just the thought of Aunt Deanna herself made Kyla feel a whole lot calmer.

After awhile she looked around again, curious about her new classmates. They appeared to all be completely human, and Kyla felt a little bit disappointed. She could just imagine the barrage of questions and comments about her forehead sure to come. Then she caught the eye of another girl, who smiled widely and pushed her hair back, revealing her obviously Vulcan ear. Kyla smiled back at her, feeling a great deal better.

When the bell rang for lunch the Vulcan girl approached Kyla.

"Hi! I'm Lucy. What planet are you from?"

"Nice to meet you, Lucy. I am Kyla. My mother is from J'naii and my father is human."

"My father is human too! And my mother is Vulcan. My dad just retired from Starfleet. He runs a skiing resort now. This is Gina and Tracy." She indicated the two girls walking beside her. Both of them looked completely human to Kyla. Kyla wondered whether it would be impolite to ask, just to be sure.

The girls found a table and sat down with their food.

"So where is J'naii?" Gina asked.

"A long, long way from here." Kyla laughed.

"I'll bet," Tracy said, and all four girls laughed.

"Where are you girls from?" Kyla asked.

"Both of us are born and bred Alaskan. Kind of boring, huh?"

"My dad is originally from here," Kyla said. "He's a commander on the starship Enterprise now. He wanted me to go to school here this year because he thought it would be a good experience for me."

"What about the rest of your family?"

"My brother and sister are still on the Enterprise with my parents, but I have a couple of cousins, Jon and Sam, who go to school here."

Tracy's face lit up. "Jon Riker? He's your cousin?"

"He's my second cousin. His dad and my dad are first cousins. Why?"

"Tracy has only had a humongous crush on him for a whole year," Gina giggled.

Kyla smiled awkwardly, not sure what to say.

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly. At the end of the school day, Lucy, Gina, and Tracy headed for the bus, and Kyla waited to meet up with Jon and Sam.

"Well, how did your first day at Valdez Senior High go?" Jon asked.

Kyla laughed. "I'm kind of overwhelmed. There are so many different clubs to join and activities to get involved in, I'm going to have a hard time deciding. I obviously can't join all of them."

"I suppose it's a given you'll be joining the Astronomy club," Sam said.

"I suppose that is not a given. Maybe I'd like to try something different for a change."

"I'm sure the Astronomy club would be very happy to have you," Jon said.

"Perhaps. I'm hardly unique though. I'm sure a lot of Starfleet officers' kids go here."

"But none of them have a forehead like yours," Sam pointed out.

Kyla rolled her eyes. She was getting so sick of comments like that, even when they weren't meant in an unkind way.

When she got home she was so tired that she sat her backpack down on her bedroom floor and stretched out on the bed intending to only rest a few minutes before getting started on the pile of forms and paperwork she had brought home to look over and sign.

She didn't realize how deeply asleep she was until a couple of hours later, when she felt Paula gently shaking her awake to tell her that it was dinnertime.

After dinner, as usual, Kyla checked her email account. There was a new email from Alex. Kyla quickly opened it.

"Hi Kyla. It still seems awfully quiet around here. Dr. Crusher is having me compare the anatomy of humans, Klingons, and Betazoids. All those bones and their Latin names to memorize, bleh. :( Worf says I am getting better at target practice, but I'm still not nearly as good as he is, of course. LOL Dad won another poker game last night. Mom got an email from her cousin in the Ukraine whom she hadn't heard from in ten years. I miss the sound of your voice. Please write soon. Alex."

Kyla composed a reply to him.

"Hi Alex. Today was the first day of school here. I am taking American Colloquial English of the 24th Century, Honors Math, Honors Science, World History 1800-2300, and Interplanetary Communication. I met a girl named Lucy who is half-human like us. Her mom is a Vulcan. I also met two friends of hers, Gina and Tracy. I am thinking of joining the Photography Club. I miss your voice too. Boy do my feet hurt! LOL Later, Kyla."


	4. Valdez Senior High Part Two

"That was excellent," Mrs. Banks told Kyla. Mrs. Banks was the instructor of the Valdez Senior High school band, and today was band try-out day for the new students.

"Thank you," Kyla told the elderly woman. "My dad taught me how to play trombone. He went to school here too, and was in the band."

"What's your father's name? I probably know him."

"Will Riker. He graduated in 2353."

Mrs. Banks laughed. "Oh yes, I remember Will Riker perfectly. He was such a practical joker. I'll never forget the plastic cockroach he left on my desk one Halloween."

Kyla hoped that the long-ago fake cockroach would not have a detrimental affect on her chances of being chosen for the band.

"What's he up to these days?" Mrs. Banks asked.

"He's second in command to Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise," Kyla told her.

"I always knew that he would go far, he was such a bright young man," Mrs. Banks said.

"Okay, Brandon, you're next," she said to the boy standing behind Kyla.

Brandon scowled at Kyla. "This school is so full of half breeds like you," he complained. "Why do those Starfleet hotshots always have to marry alien women? Human girls aren't good enough for them?"

Kyla ignored him and headed for the band room exit where she knew that Lucy, Gina, and Tracy were waiting for her.

"So how did it go?" Lucy asked her.

"I was nervous," Kyla said, "but she told me that I was excellent. She remembers my dad too. She was the band instructor when he was in the band here."

"Cool!" Lucy said. "You will be a second generation Valdez Senior High trombonist then."

"If I get chosen," Kyla reminded her.

"Oh, you will," Lucy said.

"Don't forget to talk to Jon for me," Tracy said.

That night after dinner Kyla saw a new email from Alex in her inbox. With a twinge of guilt she realized that it was the third email in a row from him, and she had yet to respond to the previous two.

"Hi Kyla, it's been a long time since I have heard from you. Are you okay? Kendra and Little Will are starting to get on my nerves. I guess they don't mean to but they are always following me around, asking questions. You were always so good at handling them. Dr. Crusher has me studying the gestational cycles of small mammals of earth and some other planets. I won't bore you with the details there. Worf is teaching me all about weapons used in past and present Klingon wars. Now that is really interesting, but I guess it probably wouldn't be to you since it's kind of a guy thing. LOL Your mom seems kind of weepy. She must really miss you. Your dad is always working, as usual. I think that something might be up with him, although he won't say anything about it. Perhaps he's afraid that if he talks about it that might jinx it or something. Anyway I really miss you so please, please write back as soon as you can. Take care, Alex."

Kyla composed a reply right away, before she could get busy with something else and forget about it again.

"Hi Alex, I'm very sorry to take so long to get back to you. You wouldn't believe how busy things have been around here lately. I just had two major exams this past week, one in science and one in math. I've also been practicing trombone a lot, since band try-outs were today. I sure do hope I made it. That would be so much fun, playing trombone at all the football games. The weather is really gorgeous here but I know that it will be getting cold soon. Give my parents and everyone else my love. Talk to you later. Kyla."

Then she remembered her promise to Tracy about talking to Jon for her, so she went to find him. He was in his room organizing football cards.

"Hi Kyla, come on in. What's up?"

"Jon, do you know a girl named Tracy Cox?"

He thought for a minute. "Vaguely. Why?"

"She wanted me to tell you that she really likes you and wants to go out with you."

Jon looked annoyed. "Well actually, Kyla, there's another girl I've been wanting to ask out for a while, and I've just about got the nerve up now. Sorry."

Kyla wondered how she would break the bad news to Tracy without hurting her feelings.

The next day the list of new students who had been selected for the band was posted next to the band room door. Kyla was thrilled to see that her name was on the list. She wondered whether the boy named Brandon had been chosen as well, and was relieved to see that there was no Brandon on the list. She felt a little bit guilty about feeling relieved, but she was sure that she would have felt uncomfortable knowing that someone who disliked her was also in the band.

"I made it!" she said proudly to Lucy, Gina, and Tracy, who were waiting for her outside the band room.

Lucy hugged her. "I told you you would!"

"Did you talk to Jon yet?" Tracy asked anxiously.

"I didn't see him all evening yesterday. He went bowling with his friends," Kyla lied. "If I see him tonight I'll talk to him."

Kyla felt guilty about lying to her friend, but she hadn't wanted to make Tracy sad. This way at least she had bought herself some more time to think of a way to break the news to Tracy kindly.

That afternoon was the first band practice of the new school year. Kyla looked around and recognized a few faces, but most of them were strangers to her. A very nice-looking boy smiled at her, and she smiled back.

After the practice was over, the nice-looking boy approached her.

"Hi, I'm Ethan Todd," he said.

"I'm Kyla Riker. Nice to meet you, Ethan," she said.

He grinned. "Is this your first year at Valdez?"

"Yes. My father is a Starfleet officer, but he grew up and went to school here, and he wanted me to experience what regular high school is like on Earth."

"You're going to love Valdez High. I've made so many friends here."

"How long have you been in the band?"

"This is my third year. I graduate this year, so this is my last year."

"My cousin is a senior too."

"What's his name?"

"Jon Riker."

"Oh yeah, I know Jon. He's a great guy."

Kyla saw Carl's van in the school parking lot.

"Well, there's my ride. I have to go now, but it was nice talking to you."

"Nice talking to you too, Kyla. Hey, could I have your phone number? Maybe we could go to dinner sometime."

"Sure, that sounds like fun." Kyla wrote it down quickly on a piece of scrap paper and gave it to him.

"Thanks." He put the piece of paper in his wallet. "I will definitely be in touch."

* * *

"Your dad and I were really close when we were kids," Carl told Kyla. They were both sitting on the porch swing, looking up at the stars in the night sky. "Neither one of us had any brothers or sisters, so we were almost like brothers too each other. He spent a lot of time at my house. Uncle Kyle worked long hours and he got lonely. I don't even remember Aunt Betty at all, I was so young when she died. My mom was like a substitute mother to him. She went out of her way to be nice to him. She felt sorry for him. Who wouldn't have? He used to love her chocolate chip cookies. Almost every day after school he came over to my house to eat them. We would go skiing in the winter, and in the summer there was fishing and kayaking. Your dad always loved the outdoors."

Kyla thought of her father's body hunched over the controls of the Enterprise and suddenly felt profoundly sad without having any idea why.

"He was going to be a botanist. Did he ever tell you that?"

"No."

"He could tell you the names of all the trees and the wildflowers, and everything about them. Then when he was about the age you are now, Uncle Kyle had his breakdown and your dad was on his own. That was about the time he got into all this astrophysical stuff and became obsessed with Starfleet Academy. After that nothing else mattered to him. Not his family, his friends, or anything but Starfleet." Carl sounded sad and a little bitter.

"I'm so sorry." Kyla couldn't think of anything else to say.

"I stayed here and finished high school and went into the fishing business," Carl continued. He gazed up into the stars in the night sky. "I wonder how many of them have planets around them with people just like us?"

"More than you can imagine," Kyla said.

"I'll bet." He looked deep in thought. "I've always wondered where I might have gone if I had been really smart like your dad," he said with a sigh. "But there's no point in going there. I'm just the Riker with the garden variety I.Q."

"Please don't talk about yourself that way, Carl," Kyla said. "You have nothing to feel bad about at all. You're an honest man and a hard worker making a decent living. The universe needs deep sea fishermen just as much as it needs starship commanders. Everyone has his or her own place in life, and none are any more or any less important than the others." Kyla wished that her Aunt Deanna was there. She always knew exactly the right thing to say at times like this.

"Yeah. Maybe." Carl got up from the porch swing. "It's getting awfully chilly out here. Guess it's about time to go back inside."


	5. An Act of Incredible Cowardice

"So you have lived almost your entire life on a starship?" Ethan asked. He and Kyla were having dinner together at a seafood restaurant.

"Mostly," Kyla told him. "Every so often my father has leave time, which which he spends mostly on Earth, either here in Alaska where his family is or his second favorite Earth city, New Orleans in Louisiana."

"I can't imagine what that must be like," Ethan said. "I've lived my entire life right here in Alaska."

"I guess we really come from two different worlds then," Kyla joked.

Ethan laughed. "I am very interested in yours, however," he said. "I plan to apply to Starfleet Academy soon. What about you? Are you planning to attend Starfleet Academy after you graduate as well?"

"I suppose I will. It's always been assumed that I would."

"But what do _you _want to do, Kyla?"

"I've never really given it much thought," Kyla admitted. Doing what her parents expected of her had always been foremost in her mind.

"Where did you get those lovely forehead markings?" Ethan asked with a smile.

Kyla smiled and blushed. "Those are from my mom. She comes from J'naii," she said softly.

"J'naii?"

"It's a planet where everyone is supposed to be androgynous, neither male nor female. My mother knew from a young age that she was really female, but she always had to keep it a secret. Then they found out that she was in love with my father, and they tried to forcibly brainwash her, but my father helped her to escape, and they have been together ever since then."

Ethan had a dreamy look in his eyes. "Wow, Kyla, what a beautiful love story," he said softly.

"They are still very much in love to this day," Kyla told him.

"Where did you get your beautiful clear blue eyes?" Ethan asked.

"Those are from my dad," Kyla said.

"And that cute little cleft in your chin?"

"Also from my dad, although you can't see his since he has a beard. I've seen pictures of him that were taken a long time before I was born and in them he has a cleft in his chin that's just like mine."

* * *

"Don't forget, I'm picking you up for the homecoming game next Friday," Ethan said when he had taken her back home and walked her to the door. The following Friday night was the most important football game of the season, the Valdez Senior High Cougars against the Anchorage Senior High Pumas. There would also be a dance after the game.

"How could I ever forget?" Kyla laughed. She knew that most of the following week would be spent practicing the trombone.

"Well, good night." Ethan hesitated for a few seconds. Then he smiled, touched her hand, and walked back to his car.

The following week was indeed devoted to intense trombone practice, both during and after school. Kyla didn't even get a chance to check her email all week. She knew that there was probably a message or two from Alex and felt a little bit guilty, but she told herself that she would have plenty of time to catch up on email the following week.

At last the big night arrived. Kyla fussed over her band uniform, doing everything she could to make it look as perfect as possible. She carefully blushed her chestnut brown hair until it shone, and she applied and re-applied make-up several times until she felt that it looked just right.

Sam saw her and pretended to play the trombone soundlessly. Kyla glowered at him and he burst out laughing. Kyla couldn't help joining in.

She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard the doorbell ring. The butterflies in her stomach felt like they were pole vaulting now.

Ethan looked so very handsome in his own band uniform. As soon as he saw Kyla he smiled broadly.

"Well, hello there, gorgeous," he said.

"Hi, Ethan," Kyla said shyly.

Neither of them said anything while walking to Ethan's car. When they were seated, Kyla asked, "Are you as nervous as I am?"

"I'm a little bit nervous," Ethan admitted.

"I've spent just about every waking hour practicing my trombone," Kyla told him.

"Oh, I'm sure we'll both do fine," Ethan reassured her.

"Well, here we are," he said a few minutes later as he pulled into the Valdez Senior High parking lot.

Silently they made their way to the band room, where all the band members were to arrive thirty minutes prior to the beginning of the game and march out in procession. Kyla found her proper position and waited quietly until everyone else was in place. Then Mrs. Banks led them onto the field.

The butterflies in Kyla's stomach quieted as soon as she began to play the familiar notes. After all the hours of practice, the music seemed to float out as effortlessly as fallen leaves floating on a moving stream, and Kyla felt her soul floating right along with them. She was so caught up in the experience that time seemed to stand still, and it seemed that the only things that existed in the world were Kyla herself and the music.

The Valdez Cougars played well, although the Ancorage Pumas were a formidable opponent, and the Cougars only won by a narrow margin. After the game Ethan and Kyla returned to the band room to change into their regular clothes. Then they went to meet up with Lucy, Gina and Tracy at the after-game dance.

The dance floor was crowded, but Kyla saw Lucy waving to her and made her way over to where the three girls were standing.

"Wow, what a game!" Lucy said.

"It sure was a close one," Gina agreed. "For a while there I was afraid we were going to lose."

"Hey Kyla, you guys sounded really awesome," Jon said. He was there with his new girlfriend Sierra.

"Thanks, Jon," Kyla said. She saw the crushed look on Tracy's face and felt sad for her friend, but also relieved that she had been spared from being the one to break the news to her.

"Shall we dance?" Ethan asked Kyla.

"I don't know about you, but I certainly intend to," Kyla quipped. Both of them burst out laughing.

A slow song was playing and Ethan held Kyla close to him. As their bodies moved together Kyla became aware that a part of Ethan had grown hard and was pressing against her in front. Startled, Kyla stepped back slightly.

Ethan looked puzzled. "Did I do something wrong?" he whispered.

After Ethan drove Kyla home he walked her to the door as he had the previous week.

"I had a really wonderful time tonight, Kyla," he told her.

"So did I," Kyla said. "I think you're a very good dancer."

"So are you," Ethan said. "See you Monday morning." After a moment's hesitation, he softly kissed her lips. His kiss was tender and sensual, totally different from the playful kiss Alex had given her so long ago on J'naii.

That night Kyla lay in bed thinking about dancing so closely with Ethan and the sensation of that part of his body so close to hers. Kyla knew the anatomical differences between males and females, of course; Dr. Beverly Crusher had given her very detailed information about the subject long ago, but that was the first time she had ever actually felt the presence of a male organ. She had felt rather awkward about it at first and hoped that she had not caused Ethan to feel embarrassed.

* * *

The following Monday morning, everyone was in good spirits. Jon and Sam were both still excited and happy about Friday night's victory. With her mind full of the success of the band's performance and the memories of the intimacy she had shared with Ethan at the dance and afterwards, Kyla felt as if she were walking on clouds. She couldn't wait to meet up with Lucy, Gina, and Tracy to talk and laugh about the weekend's fun.

She saw Lucy waiting by the front door for her and rushed to meet her friend.

"Hey, girl! Gina and Tracy will be here in a minute," Lucy said. "In fact, there they come now."

"Are you all right, Tracy?" Kyla asked, remembering how distraught Tracy had looked when she had seen Jon and Sierra together.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me," Tracy replied. "It was silly of me to get my hopes up anyway," she mumbled.

Kyla put her arm around Tracy. "It's never silly to care for someone," she said. "And I'm sure there's a guy not too far away who's perfect for you." Tracy smiled and looked a little bit more cheerful.

The girls headed for their lockers to get the books they would need for their first class. Lucy, whose locker was in the same row as Kyla's, saw it first and let out a shocked gasp. "Oh, no," she moaned.

Someone had opened Kyla's locker, strewn all her belongings on the hallway floor, and filled the locker itself with trash. Not just any kind of trash, but the most disgusting kind possible - rotting food, dirty napkins and paper towels, and other items too disgusting to mention. The words "Go back home J'naii" were spray painted in red across the front of the locker, along with several profanities and obscene words. Everyone in the hallway was perfectly still, staring at the disgusting mess in shocked silence.


	6. A Message To Aunt Deanna

"I find it impossible to believe that this kind of thing could happen in the twenty-fourth century," Mr. Ward, the principal of Valdez Senior High, stated. "The twentieth century, definitely. The twenty-first, especially the first few years, of course. But the twenty-_fourth_?" He shook his head in disbelief.

Kyla, Lucy, Gina, and Tracy were all sitting in chairs in Mr. Ward's office. Lucy's arms were around Kyla, and she was doing her best to comfort the shaken girl. The other two girls were staring blankly at the floor in disbelief.

"When the authorities get here, they will check the locker and the surrounding area for fingerprints. The only individuals with access to the school building before normal school hours are the janitorial staff. They will be interviewed to find out whether any of them are missing any keys."

He addressed Kyla. "I am just so very sorry that this happened, Kyla. Please believe that we will do everything possible to find out who perpetrated this act and bring them to justice. I hope that this incident hasn't left you with a permanent bad impression of Valdez Senior High."

"No, of course not," Kyla told him. "I have many friends here."

"I'm certainly glad to hear that," Mr. Ward replied. "Why don't you take the rest of the day off to recover from this trauma. You're free to stay, of course, if you so desire, but if not I will excuse your absence and not count it against your attendance record."

Kyla thought about band practice and Ethan, but her desire to be home with her family was so overwhelming that it didn't take her long to make her decision.

"I want to go home."

"Do you need for me to call you a taxi?" Mr. Ward asked.

"No, that's all right. I'll call my cousin's wife to come pick me up."

"What on earth happened, dear?" Paula asked her when she arrived a few minutes later.

Kyla told her about the incident with the locker.

"Oh, poor baby," Paula murmured, giving Kyla a hug.

They rode home in silence. As soon as she was home, Kyla went straight to her bedroom, where she lay in bed and cried until she had no more tears left. How she longed for her Aunt Deanna. She was only an email away, of course, but that wouldn't be the same as having her here in person.

Above all, Kyla was very determined that her mother not find out about the incident, if at all possible. She knew that it had been with much hesitation that her mother had been persuaded to allow her to attend school on Earth. She knew that if her mother found out what had happened, she would insist that Kyla return to the Enterprise immediately, never to return to Valdez Senior High. Then oh, how she would miss Lucy, Gina, Tracy, and most of all, Ethan.

Could she trust Aunt Deanna to say nothing about the incident to her parents? She knew that Aunt Deanna and her father had been very close since well before she had been born, and for that reason might have a difficult time keeping anything from him, especially something involving one of his children. In the end she decided that she would just have to take the risk of that happening, because she simply couldn't bear not being able to tell Aunt Deanna.

She opened her laptop, attempted to gather her thoughts as well as she could, and began an email to Aunt Deanna.

Dear Aunt Deanna,

First of all, I want to ask you to please, please, please not say anything about this to my parents. If my mother found out about it she would make me withdraw from school, and I would miss my new friends so very much.

When I arrived at school this morning, I found that someone had vandalized my locker. They dumped all my things out of it and filled it with trash and spray-painted 'Go home J'naii' on it. The principal Mr. Ward said that he would do everything he could to find out who did it, and he let me go home for the rest of the day.

I just don't understand why anyone would do this to me. I haven't done anything deliberately to hurt anyone. I try my best to treat everyone with respect, even people I don't like. I know that some people have made unkind remarks about my being half J'naii, but I don't understand why they do. After all, there are many different races on Earth as well, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, many others. Why is it so bad just to have one parent who comes from another planet?

I am very upset that someone would be angry enough or hate me enough that they would do a thing like this. I wanted to tell you about it because you always know the right thing to say when something goes wrong. Oh God, I just miss you so much right now, Aunt Deanna. I know that if you were here you would give me a hug and tell me that everything will be OK.

Please give my love to Uncle Tom and little Natasha.

I love you too, Aunt Deanna.

All my love,

Kyla

She felt tremendously better as soon as she had sent the email. It was as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

However, there was still the rest of the day to be gotten through somehow.


	7. A Gesture Of True Friendship

Ethan came to visit right after school was out that afternoon.

"God, Kyla, I just can't believe someone would do that to you. Everyone in band was talking about it. We are all just totally blown away. I mean, why you, of all people? You're the prettiest and nicest girl that I know."

"I guess someone just doesn't like my forehead," Kyla muttered.

"You have the most beautiful forehead in the world, Kyla." Ethan cradled her head in both his hands and tenderly kissed her forehead, then her mouth. Kyla felt his tongue slide in and was startled but didn't resist. She decided that it was kind of a nice feeling and reciprocated. Ethan's hands moved over her breasts and he began to caress them. Her nipples began to tingle, and suddenly Ethan dropped his hands and stepped away from her.

"I need to be going," he said softly. His face was beet red. Kyla noticed that he had a large bulge in the front of his pants and felt her own face burning.

That night after dinner Carl said that he needed to talk to her.

"Kyla, I really feel that you shouldn't return to school until the person who vandalized your locker is found. We don't know what their next plan of action is, and your father would kill me if anything happened to you while you're in my care." His tone was light, but his eyes were serious, very serious.

"I can't just stay home every day! I'll get hopelessly behind! I'm enrolled in two honor courses, you know," she reminded him.

"Sam will bring your assignments home to you every day so that you don't fall behind. I've already spoken to Mr. Ward and he's very understanding."

"But if I let them scare me out of going back to school, that will be the same thing as letting them win."

Carl placed his hand on Kyla's shoulder. "Kyla, today it was your locker. Tomorrow it might be you." Kyla sighed, realizing that she wasn't going to win.

Later that evening Sam came by Kyla's room.

"Hey, Kyla, I just wanted to apologize for all the smart ass things I've said about your parents and friends on the Enterprise. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I guess I was just trying to show off."

"I know that, Sam. It's all right."

"So can we be friends, then?"

"We're already friends."

Sam grinned in relief. "Thanks, Ky."

"Please don't call me 'Ky'".

His grin widened. "All right, Ky."

Kyla stuck her tongue out at him and they both burst out laughing.

Kyla also received an email from her Aunt Deanna that evening.

Dear Kyla,

I was so sorry to learn of what happened to you. Please remember that you are not alone. Your parents and your Uncle Tom and I all love you very much and want to help you any way we can. It is indeed hard to understand why acts such as the one committed against you still persist even in our time, but they do. Perhaps some people fear anyone who is different from themselves, and such acts are their way of dealing with those fears. I hope that the person who hurt you this way is caught and made to face the consequences of his actions, but even more than that, I hope that this experience doesn't make you bitter or cause you to lose faith in the human race. For every one person full of hatred and prejudice, there are many, many more whose hearts are loving and accepting. As upsetting as this has been for you, please keep believing that.

All my love,

Aunt Deanna

Kyla read through the message several times, letting the comforting words calm her jumbled thoughts and soothe her troubled spirit.

* * *

Kyla spent the next several days mostly studying or practicing the trombone in her room. She felt lonely and missed the bustle of the typical school day. Sam did bring her assignments home every afternoon, and Lucy, Gina, and Tracy also visited every evening to catch her up on the latest gossip.

On Thursday, Lucy told her that Mr. Ward would be addressing the entire student body in the gymnasium the following morning.

"We really want you to be there, Kyla. Mr. Ward is going to be talking about what happened Monday, and you need to hear what he has to say," Lucy told her.

Kyla spoke to Carl about what Lucy had told her.

"I think that in this situation your friend is right, Kyla," Carl told her. "I think that you need to be there to hear what Mr. Ward has to say."

So with some trepidation, Kyla accompanied Jon and Sam to school the following morning. It felt strange to go back after having been out for so many days, but Kyla was glad to see her friends again.

The time finally came for Mr. Ward's speech in the gymnasium. "We need to see Mrs. Hardy about something," Lucy told Kyla. "You go on ahead and we'll catch up with you later."

So Kyla walked to the gymnasium alone.

The gymnasium was buzzing with conversation when Kyla walked in, but as soon as Mr. Ward stepped up to the podium, everyone stopped talking.

"One of our students was a victim of a hate crime this past Monday," Mr. Ward began. "We are gathered here today to show that we support her and stand by her at this difficult time. We still don't know who committed this act of hatred and cowardice, but we will continue to follow all leads, and in the meantime, we want to make sure that this student knows that she is valued and loved here at Valdez Senior High. Mrs. Hardy's homeroom would like to say a few words as well."

Mr. Ward left the podium, and one by one, students began to file into the gymnasium. Kyla's entire homeroom class was there, and to Kyla's amazement, each student had forehead markings identical to her own. Lucy, Gina, and Tracy had arranged for Mrs. Sanders, the head of the school's theater department, to apply the markings to each student's head with makeup. Lucy, who had cut her hair very short so that her Vulcan ears were clearly visible, stepped up to the podium.

"We would just like to say to whoever trashed Kyla's locker that they have a lot more lockers to trash, because all of us in Mrs. Hardy's homeroom are J'naii's now. Actually I'm both J'naii and Vulcan, so you'd better really trash mine good."

Kyla, overcome with emotion, could only stand there with tears streaming down her face as each of her friends came to her and embraced her.


	8. Back Aboard The Enterprise

Later that day, Brandon Hicks, the boy who had spoken rudely to Kyla the day of the band try-outs, admitted that it had been he who had vandalized Kyla's locker, and Mr. Ward expelled him from Valdez Senior High. Kyla bore no hatred for him; in a way, she pitied him, but it still bothered her that he never apologized to her personally.

As soon as the whole incident was over, Kyla sent Alex and email telling him all about it. He wrote back to her a short time later.

Hi Kyla,

Wow, sounds like things have sure been crazy at your end. That's terrible what happened to you, and I'm glad the guy finally admitted it. And you're right, I think that he should have apologized to you personally as well, but at least it's over with now. I wish you had told me about it right after it happened. You shouldn't have worried about upsetting me. Please remember that I am always here for you, Kyla, no matter what.

Things are about the same around here. Dad has been showing me a few things about how to pilot a starship. He says that if I want to attend Starfleet Academy in a couple of years, I need to start thinking about it now.

Kendra seems to be just a little bit less annoying than she was before. She still talks and giggles too much, but her looks are changing. She's getting taller and developing curves in just the right places. She wanted me to play monopoly with her the other day and I actually enjoyed it. Little Will is still a pain in the butt, however.

I'm still missing you a whole lot and counting down the days until I see you again.

Take care,

Alex

Kyla felt funny inside. She thought that she had never realized how much she had truly missed Alex until just then. She wrote an email back to him.

Hi Alex,

We just had our first snow of the season. Everyone tells me I haven't seen anything yet. My God, it's just so freaking cold. I really miss Dad's split pea soup. Paula makes it too, but hers just doesn't taste the same as Dad's.

Things seems to be back to normal at school. Everyone still goes out of their way to be nice to me. I still can't believe that Lucy and the others got the entire class together to do that just for me. I still cry when I think about it. I truly couldn't ask for better friends than the ones I have now, including you, of course, dear Alex. :)

I miss you too, as well as my parents and all my friends aboard the Enterprise, and can't wait to see you all again.

Yours truly,

Kyla

Kyla felt guilty that she hadn't told Alex about Ethan, but whenever she thought about doing that she just felt so funny about it, so she hadn't been able to bring herself to.

* * *

At last the school term ended for the holidays, and Kyla rejoined her family aboard the Enterprise. Her parents were, of course, very happy to see her again. Her mother hugged her as if she would never let go, until her father said, "Hey, don't I get a turn too?" Kendra and Little Will both tried to talk to her at the same time. Alex said, "My gosh, Kyla, you're even prettier than you were the last time I saw you." Kyla noticed that he looked talller, his voice sounded deeper, and he also had some peach fuzz above his lips.

Besides Alex's parents, Uncle Tom and Aunt Deanna were there with their little girl Natasha, Captain Jean-Luc and Dr. Beverly Picard were there with their little boy Rene, who was the same age as Natasha, Ensign Alexander Rozhenko, a recent Starfleet graduate, was there visiting his father Worf, and Wesley Crusher was there with his wife Robin and their children, Jack and Brianna. Kyla thought about how strange it was that, although the two boys were the same age, Rene Picard was actually Jack Crusher's uncle, since Rene's mother was Jack's grandmother.

As usual, the kids divided into a group of older kids comprised of Alexander, Alex, Kyla, Kendra, and Little Will, and a group of younger kids comprised of Rene, Natasha, Jack, and Brianna. Alex admired the older boy who shared his first name very much, and so he tried to divide his time between catching up with Alexander and visiting with Kyla. Kendra and Little Will vied for their older sister's attention, and among the younger kids, Brianna, who was a couple of years younger than the other kids, struggled to keep up.

Once everyone had had the chance to catch up on each other's news, Kyla's father gathered Kyla, Kendra, and Little Will together. He said that it was fine for Alex to sit in with them as well, since he was such an old friend.

"Your mother and I have some important news to share with you," Will Riker announced. "We've known about it for some time now, but we wanted to wait until Kyla was here so that we could tell you all in person. There is an important change coming to our lives soon, one that will affect all of us very much, and we all have to start preparing for it right away."


	9. Saying Goodbye

"I have accepted the position of captain on the _U.S.S. Titan_," Kyla's father continued. In just a few weeks we will all move there together as a family. Kyla, when your next school term ends, you will be beamed aboard the _Titan _rather than the _Enterprise._"

All four children looked at one another in disbelief.

"Alex, your father will be Captain Picard's new first officer after we leave for the _Titan, _so your family will remain on the _Enterprise._"

"I hope that you are all happy for your father," Kyla's mother added. "This is something for which he has worked hard for a long time."

"Will we ever come back to the _Enterprise _for visits?" Kyla asked.

"Of course we will," her father assured her.

"How often?"

"I don't know yet. It will depend on how often the travel assignments of the two ships coincide, how much leave time will be available, and what other priorities must be met first."

Will Riker saw how despondent Kyla was looked and gave his older daughter a hug.

"Please don't look so sad, Kyla. There's always email and chat, so we'll still be able to stay in touch with our friends on the _Enterprise."_

"I think moving to another starship will be exciting!" Little Will exclaimed.

"Maybe some of the crew members will have kids around our age," Kendra said.

Kyla and Alex lingered after the others had gone.

"I suppose my mom's right and I should be happy for him," Kyla said. "He has been wanting to be the captain of his own starship for a long time now."

"My dad has been wanting to be first officer for a long time too," Alex said.

They were silent for a long moment, neither one knowing what to say next.

"Well, after your school starts back in January, then I guess that's it," Alex finally said.

"Well, at least there's still email and chat, like my dad said," Kyla replied.

"It isn't the same, though, is it?"

"Well, I guess we should just try to enjoy the holiday season and not think too much about it," Kyla suggested.

"I guess you're right."

Kyla did try to put it out of her mind as much as she could for the two weeks she was back on the _Enterprise,_ but the specter of what was in the future hung a heavy cloud of gloom over the holiday festivities for her. All too soon, the holidays were over and it was time for her to go back to Alaska.

"Well, I guess this is good-bye," Alex sighed.

"I'll keep in touch." Kyla had a lump in her throat.

"And visit, too, whenever you can."

"Definitely."

Alex and Kyla hugged and kissed on the lips. It was just an ordinary, innocent kiss, not the kind of kiss Ethan had given her. She turned away quickly so that Alex wouldn't see the tears in her eyes.

* * *

"So, how are your folks doing?" Carl asked when he picked her up.

"They're fine. My dad just accepted the position of captain of the _U.S.S. Titan, _so we'll be moving there in a few weeks."

"Well, I'll be darned!" Carl howled with laughter. "Finally got tired of waiting for Picard to retire, did he?"

Kyla didn't understand what he was talking about. She was quiet for the rest of the ride home.

When she arrived back at the house, she told Paula, Jon, and Sam the news.

"Why, honey, that's wonderful," Paula said. "All of you must be very happy."

"That's great, Kyla!" Jon said.

"Wow!" said Sam.

After dinner, Kyla couldn't wait to finish her cleaning chores so that she could check her email. Yes, he had already written.

Hi Kyla,

I just can't believe it. No more Alex and Kyla. No more Kyla and Alex. I feel like the world is about to end.

Yours,

Alex

Kyla sat for twenty minutes staring at the computer screen, trying to compose a response to him. Finally she gave up and closed her laptop. She cried herself to sleep that night.

* * *

Ethan picked her up to take her to dinner and a movie the following Friday night.

"Hey, gorgeous!" He kissed her in greeting. "I missed you soo much! So, how was Christmas aboard the _Enterprise?"_

"I really enjoyed it. It was great to see my family and friends again. How was your Christmas?"

"It was all right, but it would have been so much better if you could have been there."

Kyla was happy to see Ethan again and enjoyed the time she spent with him, but her mind kept going back to the situation with the _Enterprise _and Alex. Ethan looked at her quizzically a few times but didn't say anything.

When he finally took her home, he asked her,"What's the matter, Kyla? You've been so quiet all night."

Suddenly she wasn't able to hold it in any longer and burst into tears.

"Oh, hey, what's the matter?" Ethan's voice was full of concern as he put his arm around her.

"My dad has a new job as captain of the _Titan," _she sobbed.

"Hey, that sounds like good news!"

"I guess so."

"So why are you crying?"

"It's just going to be so hard to leave all my friends on the _Enterprise. _I've known them for my entire life." She didn't mention Alex specifically, although he was the one she would miss most of all by far. Somehow she just didn't feel right about doing that.

"I know it will be, Kyla. But you'll make new friends on the _Titan. _I'm sure some of the personnel on the _Titan _have kids too."

"But it won't be the same."

"I know that, Kyla. But change is part of growing up, part of life. I'm sure it was a big change for you to go to school on Earth for the first time this year. But look at how much fun you've had and how many new friends you've made."

Kyla knew that he was right, but it didn't diminish the ache in her heart.

"I'll be going through a big change myself, too, in a few months," Ethan continued. "Next August I start my classes at Starfleet Academy in California. I'll be leaving behind almost all my friends in Alaska, and I've known some of them my whole life as well."

"I'll bet that will be hard for you too," Kyla sympathized.

"I know it will be. That's why I treasure the time I have left with them, just like I treasure the time I have with you." He touched her cheek, and she smiled and blushed.

"Everything will be all right, Kyla. Just remember that the people who are important to you are always in your heart, even if you can't be with them face to face. And if you do get occasional chances to see them again, that will give you something to look forward to that will make the lonelier times easier to bear."

"Thanks, Ethan. I feel so much better now." Kyla smiled. "I never thought of it that way before."

"Well, I'm so glad you feel better. I can't stand to see you cry, Kyla." He kissed her tenderly on the lips. "Good night and sweet dreams." They hugged and kissed again, this time a long, lingering kiss, as if they were reluctant to let each other go.


	10. The USS Titan

The second year of the school term passed quickly for Kyla. The snow continued into February and March, and she went heli-skiing often with her friends. Most of the time she kept busy enough to keep the move from the _Enterprise _to the _Titanic _far from her mind. She and Alex communicated often through email, trying to keep their tones light and cheerful, but the specter of the coming change weighed heavy on both their minds, and although they both tried to mention it as little as possible, there was a new sadness in their relationship that hadn't been there before.

Spring arrived, and with it the departure of the snow. Kyla and her friends went bicycle riding and played basketball and softball. The school band also performed a couple of out-of-town concerts, which was a lot of work but exciting and fun.

Jon and Ethan both graduated from Valdez Senior High in early June. During the last few weeks of the school year, the band practiced playing 'Pomp and Circumstance' over and over again until they could play it perfectly. On the day of the graduation ceremony, the band entered the building thirty minutes before the ceremony was due to start. For Kyla, it felt strange to be performing with the band without Ethan and the other members of the graduating class.

As the graduates filed in, all of them in identical caps and gowns, Kyla's eyes searched the sea of faces for those of Jon and Ethan.

At last the graduates were all in their proper places, and it was time for the ceremony to begin. After speeches by several different school officials, the graduates were called up one by one to receive their diplomas. Since Jon and Ethan both had last names beginning with letters near the end of the alphabet, Kyla had to wait a very long time to hear their names, but she felt very proud of both of them when their turns finally came.

Soon the ceremony was over, and all the graduates threw their caps into the air. Kyla laughed with surprise. She hadn't know they were going to do that.

The Saturday night before Kyla was due to board the _Titan, _Ethan took her out for their last date.

"God, Kyla, it's so hard to say good-bye to you," Ethan told her when he had driven her home. "I've never before felt about a girl the way I feel about you."

"So don't say good-bye. Say 'until next time.' My dad and my Aunt Deanna have never said good-bye to each other, and they've been knowing each other a lot longer than my dad has been knowing my mom."

"I like that a lot better." Ethan's mood seemed to brighten.

"I'll talk to my dad about it, and maybe he'll let me visit you at the Starfleet Academy in San Francisco sometime."

"I know that right now four years seems like a long time, but as soon as I'm finished with Starfleet Academy, I'll apply to be an ensign on the _Titan."_

"Oh, that would be great, Ethan. If you got a job on my dad's starship then we could see each other all the time."

"Until next time then, Kyla."

"Until next time, Ethan."

He kissed her, and it was a long, passionate kiss. Kyla felt that it would never end. Neither of them wanted it to.

* * *

At last it was time for Kyla to board the _Titan. _After exchanging hugs and kisses with her parents and brother and sister, she was introduced to her father's crew: Commander Christine Vale, Lieutenant Alyssa Ogawa, the Vulcan Tuvok, the Trill Ranul Keru, the Bajoran Jaza Najem, the Efrosian Xin Ra-Havreii, and Dr. Shenti Yisec Eres Ree, who was a Pahkwa-thanh. She had to suppress a giggle at Dr. Ree's dinosaur-like appearance. Just looking at him must be a delight for his younger human patients, she thought. She wondered how long it would be before he was nicknamed 'Dr. Dinosaur.'

Next, Kyla's parents showed her to her new room in the family's quarters. It was larger, more spacious, newer-looking, and much nicer than her old bedroom in her family's quarters on the _Enterprise_ had been. Kyla was impressed.

As soon as she was settled in, she got her laptop out and composed an email to Alex.

Hi Alex,

Well, here I am at last on the _U.S.S. Titan. _Things are sure different here than they were on the _Enterprise. _I just met my dad's crew: two humans, a Vulcan, a Trill, a Bajoran, an Efrasian, and something called a Pahkwa-thanh. Dr. Ree, the Pahkwa-thanh, is the strangest looking individual I have ever met. He looks just like a dinosaur who wears clothing and walks on his hind legs! He seems very nice, though, as do all of them.

I love my new bedroom. It's larger and looks nicer than my old bedroom on the _Enterprise _did. The only thing wrong is that you're not here. My parents tell me that I'll make new friends from among the kids here, but none of them could ever take your place.

Missing you,

Kyla

Kyla heard a knock on her bedroom door. "Come in," she said. Her sister Kendra stepped in.

"Hey Kyla, there's hot dogs and potato chips for lunch, and banana splits for dessert. After that there's a water park simulation on the holodeck. Some of the other kids will be there too. Want to come?"

A real water park would be so much more fun, Kyla thought grumpily. Then it occurred to her that she hadn't done anything fun with her sister in so long that she couldn't even remember the last time she had.

"That sounds great, Kendra. Sure, I'll come."


End file.
